Shakespear Fishing Rods

The Art and Science of Rod Guides

By Jeff Weakley, Editor of the March 2011 Issue of Florida Sportsman

If you're like most fishermen, when you take a new rod, you shake it, maybe bend the tip, the scan line and lure printed class notes.

But what about the guides?

In years past, you've probably looked for the "Fuji" stamp on a guide frame. Today, this evaluation is a bit more complicated. Fuji now offers a wide range of products, aluminum oxide proven, cutting edge of the ceramic to dissipate the heat of a jet engine (and you thought of mackerel were quick!) .Tangle-free guides are being developed, as are Fuji and other design models and titanium to last longer than any other piece of equipment. Meanwhile, the race for points in prices, many companies rely on well-known rod suppliers of replacement components. Indeed, there are high quality rods on the market without the stamps.

For the average fisherman, if your rod guides are in good condition, showing no signs of wear or cracking, there is little reason for their obsession with technology. The rings of basic aluminum oxide developed 40 years ago are perfectly fine now, even driving braided polyethylene. Assuming the frames are stainless steel, a thorough freshwater rinse and towel-dry should stave off corrosion for many seasons.

If you’re looking for a new rod, however, it’s worth knowing more about those components.

And then of course there’s the third camp—guys like my neighbor, who throw away an otherwise good rod only because the guides are in sorry shape. New guides (or even old guides scratched off a broken rod) can make an old rod new again.

Walking my kid to school one day, I surreptitiously lifted that old fiberglass Shakespeare spinning rod from my neighbor’s trash pile. The guides were corroded beyond recovery, and several of the ceramic rings were missing.

The rod itself was indestructible, old-school fiberglass. Too much of a stump to work well as a spinning outfit, but as a jigging and drifting stick, it had promise. Maybe mount a heavy baitcast reel on it, like a Penn 655? I thought about some guides I’d recently scraped off a broken trolling rod. (If you, reader, haven’t yet developed a habit of squirreling away rod and reel parts, I suggest you begin.)

I took the rod and guides Roy McFarland, a master rod builder and owner of Treasure Coast rod and reel in Jensen Beach. Its inventory, he completed a series of guides, aluminum oxide guides Fuji Heavy duty casting, sustainable and profitable appropriate. Together, we turned in an old spinner rod versatile boat, starting with the scratching of the epoxy, spray painting of the Virgin, new packing guides, and applying three coats of the new epoxy resin.

Shakespeare Fishing Rod | FFish

I do paylake carp fishing in tournoments and my brother who is 13 wants to do it too. he is good for his age and is tired of using 808s. so i thought i would get him a baitcasting reel and i am not buying him anything expensive.he wants abu garcia ambassadors but im not going to hget him any i thought i would get him 2 of these to carp fish with what do you think